


This Means War

by Random954



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Am I tagging right?, Gen, M/M, Prank War, grumpy Nico, rhyming insults, there should be more fics with the Stolls as characters, will is a dork
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2018-07-19 11:12:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7358872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Random954/pseuds/Random954
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will does something to Nico, so Nico does something to Will. It quickly spirals out of control.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Nico Puts Himself in Solitary Confinement

At first no one noticed.

When Nico stormed into they Dining Pavilion at breakfast, wearing his annoyance as armor, brandishing a sharpened scowl that challenged anyone to try to talk to him, it was just a normal day at Camp Halfblood. Everyone knew he hated mornings, and if he seemed to hate this one a bit more than others it wasn't that concerning, right? He was the Ghost King, the shadow kid, the son of death. He didn't _do_ happy.

His friends found it kind of strange when Jason innocently asked how Nico's day was going and all he got in response was a long suffering sigh immediately followed Nico stomping off with a grimace. It was kind of strange, but not especially so. Even Jason would readily admit that he sometimes bothered Nico enough to drive the poor son of Hades up a wall. Assuming Nico was just especially exasperated with Jason wasn't much of a stretch.

The only thing that couldn't be explained away with a bad mood was they way Nico avoided Will. They always walked to breakfast together, usually laughing and bickering playfully, sometimes in a heated debate over something they'd later admit was silly, and occasionally in silence when one of them simply didn't feel like talking. Yet Nico had arrived alone.

It couldn't have been chalked up to a fight because even when Nico and Will weren't getting along Nico still visited the infirmary to help bandage patients. They'd rather ignore each other in person because it gave them a chance to indirectly apologise (or bicker) until they actually made up. Yet Nico didn't go anywhere near the infirmary all day.

Eventually Will went on break and took his daily walk around camp. Instead of joining him, Nico shut himself up in his cabin as soon as Will left the infirmary.

Nico wasn't the friendliest of campers, but watching him regress back into his old antisocial state left his friends concerned to say the least. There was a small discussion between those who knew him best and it was decided that Jason would be the one to see if Nico was all right.

\---

The Hades Cabin always seemed to loom over anyone who approached it. Jason was used to that by now, but he always paused to watch the strange dancing shadows from the flickering green torches outside the door. The cabin brought thoughts of ghosts and graveyards and other things that made him reluctant to enter, but Nico's wellbeing was more important than the fact that Cabin thirteen felt like the place where a zombie apocalypse would start.

 

"Nico," he called, banging his fist on the door with loud thuds. Too many times had Nico claimed not to hear Jason knocking. There was no answer. That meant Nico was either, sleeping, ignoring Jason, or ignoring Jason _by_ sleeping.

With a small amount of guilt that was mostly overpowered the need to check on his friend, Jason opened the door to the Hades cabin. It was dark inside which wasn't surprising. The entire cabin was engulfed in shadows no matter the time of day.

Nico wasn't asleep, but he was stretched out on his bed, reading in the dark. Or at the very least pretending to. Could children of Hades see in the dark?

Either way he refused to acknowledge that Jason had entered. Still remembering how Nico had responded when he asked about his day, Jason decided to take a subtler approach at first.

"Hey Nico, so um, what's up?" It sounded lame and Jason could tell by the way Nico rolled his eyes that he thought the same. Well, screw subtlety.

"I know you think I'm smothering you," Jason announced. Nico hummed in agreement, but continued to pretend to read his book. "But I just want you to know, you can talk to me, or Anabeth, or Piper, or anyone if something wrong," The way Nico's knuckles whitened showed he was listening, and Jason could tell he was struggling with something.

"Jason I swear I'm okay," Nico finally said, meeting Jason's eyes for the first time. The way the muscle in Nico's jaw twitched, as if he was gritting his teeth, made Jason doubt that. So did the unloosening grip Nico had on his book, "I've just been having a rough day,"

With a bit of trepidation Jason inched towards Nico's bed to sit down. Nico was a kid who liked his personal space and Jason wouldn't be surprised if he was kicked off, literally. But Nico let him stay and Jason saw that as a small victory.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Jason asked, because if he was going to smother Nico with a complete lack of subtlety he might as well use the most obvious and cliche lines. Nico shook his head so hard and so fast that it was a wonder it didn't fall off. It wasn't the ideal response when you were trying to get someone to tell you how they feel.

"Nico..." Jason started, then stopped. What was he supposed to do now, switch tactics? Ridiculously vague and extremely pointblank were all he had. What he wanted to do was ask what was up with Will, but he knew he'd be kicked out as soon as the name left his mouth.

"Don't bottle things up," Was the dull, generic sentence that left his mouth. Sometimes Jason felt like the worst person to be giving unsolicited advice. It seemed to do the trick though.

"Im not bottling anything up," Nico grumbled, finally putting the book down so he could scowl and cross his arms. The drama queen. "Will's just being an annoying schlupp."

Jason was divided. Part of him wanted to prod deeper. It was rare he managed to pester Nico this long without being kicked out and since _Nico_ had brought up Will, that probably made it okay for Jason to talk about him too. Another part of him said he should back off. If Nico was in a good enough mood to put up with him, then dragging out the reason behind the current self-afflicted exile would ruin it. A third part of him wondered what schlupp meant.

As Jason sat there, trying to decide his next course of action a realization slowly dawned on him. He stared at Nico aghast.

"Are you rhyming?" The panicked look on Nico's face was all the answer he needed.

"Will cursed you," Accused Jason, fighting back a smile.

"No!" Nico snapped with his most withering glare. The effect was ruined almost immediately when Nico was forced to hiss out a small, "so?"

When the first chuckle squeaked out of Jason's mouth he was already expecting the kick that shoved him off the bed. By the time he hit the floor he was full on laughing. Of course Nico didn't want to _talk_ about it. He wasn't angry and withdrawn, he was annoyed and embarrassed.

Jason was incredibly relieved.

Nico kicked him out, turning red and muttering things like:

"Out, out, out, don't make me shout,"

And

"Leave this place, Jason Grace,"

\---

"Did Will really curse you to rhyme?"

The next morning Nico made it three steps out of his cabin before Percy appeared, Jason trailing behind him. If he wasn't so hungry Nico would've gone back inside an tried again when they left. Was it really so terrible that he wanted everyone to ignore him for a while. Suddenly speaking in rhyme was a lot less mortifying when no one was listening. Instead of responding to the question, Nico glared over Percy's shoulder at Jason as the foreign magic curled in his chest reminded him that, yes, Will really had cursed him.

"They were worried." Jason said. It was a terrible excuse and there was nothing Nico could do to make Jason see that. The curse latched onto Nico's frustration and used it to claw up his throat. Everyone was always so worried about him, like he was still a snot-nosed little kid, crying because his hero couldn't save his sister. His friends thought something in camp could damage his pyche worse than starving in a jar for days, dragging a statue halfway around the world, and surviving literal hell. Nico tried to squash down the anger that the curse edged on, it knew he wanted to say something, but he knew it'd get turned into an unecerary argument that ended with him being forced to have an uncomfortable talk about feelings with someone. Probably Jason. Ugh. It was a familiar feeling by now, the magic welling up in his throat as he tried to fight the urge to speak. It really didn't matter, he was fine being babied.

"Excuse me if this crass, but I'm not made of glass," The magic won and words were tumbling out of his mouth before Nico could stop them, "So you can take your worried and shove it up your-" Nico clamped a hand over his mouth, horrified. Percy face scrunched up in a strange mixture of horror and amusement, it was mostly amusement, the jerk. The magic thrashed around his throat, burning his tongue and pressing painfully against his teeth.

"Your, your... Sore... snore.. bore"

"Whoa there my prickly little poet," The chipper voice came from behind Nico, cutting off his ryhmes and making him bury his head in his hands with a groan. Obviously the Fates had decided that trying to get breakfast without talking to anyone was a crime worthy of only the most extreme punishment. Will wrapped an arm around Nico's shoulder and he didn't seem too perturbed when it was instantly shrugged off.

"What are you shouting about?" Will was wearing a pair of scrubs that were covered in little smiling ducks. They were nauseatingly adorable, which, of course, meant they were just Will's style.

"Go away and stay away I do not wish to talk today," Nico snapped. Will laughed before poking Nico's shoulder with an air of mock authority.

"You're going to be stuck talking like that, way longer than intended if you won't let me anywhere near you," He said in his I'm-a-Doctor-so-listen-to-me voice. It was true, but Nico wouldn't have admitted that outloud, even if he was willing to speak. Percy started to snicker.

"He sounds like Dr. Suess," he laughed. Nico may not have known who that was, but he felt incredibly insulted. On principle. The glare he sent Percy's way was unaffective because Percy had the nerve to be one of the handful of camper who didn't find Nico threatening. It was hard not to tell him to shut up, magic pooled in the back of Nico's throat.

"Why'd you curse Nico?" Percy asked, biting his lip because apperantly 'Nico is Dr. Suess' was the most hilarious thought he'd ever had and he was still giggling. Before Will could offer an explanation, Nico interrupted.

"Because he's a gigantic pain," he hissed, "Who likes to drive me insane." Will took the insult with pride, standing a bit straighter and smiling in a way that lit up his entire face. Not literally, but Nico would have loved if it did. Let him be the glowing center of attention.

"He knows what he did," Will told Percy, looking smug in his duck-print scrubs like the absolute dork he was. It was so Will, acting in ways that made you feel torn between patting him on the head or kicking him in the shins. Instead Nico placed a guiding hand on Will's shoulder and made the dorky doctor face him directly. Will tilted his head and blinked, confused.

"Will, you're a sunny cheery guy," Nico said his words slowly and deliberately, reciting a poem he'd come up with himself not spouting off forced curse nonsense, "please eat dirt and die,"

"You know you love me," Will elbowed Nico with, a what started out as a smirk, but quickly melted into another glowing smile. Theres just something about rhyming that filled Apollo kids with glee. Or maybe it was just Will. He was probably going to keeping joking with Nico, poking and prodding until he got more insulting couplets, when a couple of Apollo campers rushed by carrying a Hermes kid. He was bleeding, but couldn't have been hurt too badly because he was also loudly swearing vengeance on the entire Hephaestus Cabin. Whatever Will was going to say turned into a mumbled, "I should check on that."

"Bye Dr. Suess," Will shouted with a wink and pair of finger guns reserved for his purposely annoying nicknames, (as oppossed to his normal ones which he claimed were supposed to be funny.) Yep nauseatingly adorable, though Nico was definately leaning more towards the shin kicking than the head patting. Like the Hermes kid, Nico craved vengance. He needed proper penance for his poetry plight. 

-

"Stolls,"

The sons of Hermes froze. They recognized the voice, but couldn't fathom why it would be directed at them. The shared a look, asking each other a silent question.

' _Were you dumb enough to prank Nico?_ '

"Stolls!" The voice cried again, even closer. With a practiced precision Connor and Travis spun on their heels and faced the Ghost King together.

He carried a tense sort of anger in his calculated steps and the way he hunched his shoulders. When he stopped it was about a foot away and he studied the Stolls suspiciously. The unease was probably born from Nico's memory of Connor stealing his mythomagic cards on his first day in camp. The cards had been returned and they'd even taught him a couple games on their deck of playing cards, but Nico looked like he was already tired of demanding the Stolls give his stuff back. It was a look they were used to.

"I've found myself needing your aid," Nico muttered. His hands were balled into fists at his sides, and glared at the ground as if he were contemplating raising a horde of skeletons so he wouldn't have to finish talking, "The job will be short and you will get paid,"

His face rose from the ground to the faces of Travis and Connor, studying them each in turn. He seemed... well hopeful was the wrong word, too happy for the cold stoic look on Nico's face. Okay with disappointment was more accurate, he wanted them to say yes, but was equally prepared to live with a no. The Stolls weren't the type of kids to reject money, but Nico's quietly intense, gaze added a sense of importance that most of their exchanges with customers lacked. It felt like a life altering decision was being made. One that could change the history of Camp Halfblood for years to come.

They shared another look. So many words were exchanged within seconds without a sound being uttered

"Kay," Connor chirped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is longer than I thought the first chapter of my first fanfic would be :).


	2. Bad Decisions Are Made at 3am

   The only time Camp Halfblood managed to gather some peace and quiet, was when everyone was still asleep. When Apollo's chariot was just starting to peak over the horizon and the guard harpies had ceased circling. Everything was bathed in a golden glow as the world seemed to hold its breathe.

   Unless the Stolls were up to something.

   Today a symphony of screams sliced through the serenity of the silence, waking half the camp. It was almost immediately drowned out by headache inducing music that woke the other half.

   Tired campers in various states of dress stumbled out of their cabins sleepily clutching weapons. Archie from Ares cabin had pulled on an inside out jacket and was dazedly waving a sword around like he was challenging the air itself. Sudden, annoyingly upbeat, music could be a life or death situation when you were a demigod, but 3am was always 3am. The important parts of everyone's brains were still asleep.

   There was shouting that no one could hear and tons of confused gesturing before everyone managed to point their attention at the Apollo Cabin. Its windows were shaking from the force of the music and it's door remained closed. The song playing was instantly recognizable.

   A son of Aphrodite stared at the cabin, hands pressed firmly over his ears, nose wrinkled in absolute disgust.

   "Is that the chicken dance?" He asked, scandalized.

   As if on cue, the door to the Apollo cabin slammed open in puff of feathers. The music was impossibly louder, the chicken dance in all its polka glory. Apollo Campers rushed out, screaming. Every single one of then was covered from head to toe in fluffy white feathers that stuck to them like magnets.

   Then there was more gesturing and confusion that wasn't helped by how the Apollo kids fled their cabin in a panic. They answered no questions, just tried to get as far away as possible. They were, quite frankly, running like chickens with their heads cut off.

   The music stopped just as suddenly as it had started leaving everyone's ears ringing.

   "What happened!" Shouted a panicked camper, as everyone reeled from the sudden silence.

   "Some thing in our cabin EXPLODED," Austin yelled, "and it started playing MUSIC that was REALLY OUT OF TUNE!"

\---

   Will wasn't upset when his sister woke him up at three in the morning because she thought she heard something crawling around under her bed. It was impossible for him to sleep through a sunrise anyway, (Thanks Dad) so he was used to rising early. No he wasn't upset, but he was worried. Crawling meant wild animals in the cabins, which meant biting and scratching, which meant _infections_ and _rabies._

   "Is it rabid?" Will didn't really have a brain to mouth filter, especially not this early. Eight years old with a loosely curled afro and a missing front tooth, Marcy was a sweetheart, but she was terrified of animals. Especially wild ones. She launched herself onto his bed elbowing him in the stomach and scrambling behind him.

   A strangled sound came from Marcy's bed. Or, more accurately, from above Marcy's bed. Everyone in Apollo shared a bunkbed with someone.

   "Do you really think it's rabid?" Cornelius whispered peeking over the guard rail. His real name was Jake Delmira Alvarez, but he said Cornelius better suited his poetic spirit. He also got child of Aphrodite to help him dye his hair neon green, which he claimed was the color of his soul, but it was already fading to a sickly yellow.

   "I'm sure it's fine," Will whispered back, trying not to wake anyone. He heard Leona shift in the bed above him.

   "We don't have rabies shots in the infirmary," she whispered, only half awake and fumbling for her glasses. All the color drained from 'Cornelius's' face.

   "I'm jumping to your bunk," He told Leona with a sense of finality that could only come from a frightened, overdramatic ten year old.

   "You'll break your neck." Will snapped because as cabin counselor it was his job to make sure kids didn't go leaping of things. Today it was bunkbeds, tomorrow it could be the climbing wall.

   "We don't have anything for that either." Will added. They should actually be better prepared for neck injuries. Will made a mental note to get more neck braces. 'Cornelius' stood as if Will hadn't said anything.

   "Sit down drama queen!" Sasha called from her bunk. At some point she had decided that it was her job to shoot 'Cornelius' down whenever his head got too high in the clouds. All he ever did in retaliation was sulk and write brooding poetry. Will gave an annoyed twitch, partially because it took forever to drag Jake out of one of his moods, but mostly because Sasha was too loud.

   "Keep your voice down." He hissed, "If you wake up Kayla she'll throw a fit," Funnily enough, despite being a daughter of Apollo, Kayla wasn't a morning person _at all_.

   "Already awake," Kayla mumbled grumpily into her pillow, "too tired to throw a fit." Will sighed. At least Sasha and Kayla weren't fighting, their arguments could last for weeks.

   "Okay," Will took a deep breath, collecting his thoughts, "raise your hand if you're awake." As he watched every hand rise, Will reminded himself that there was a very pressing matter at hand. There was something in the cabin that he needed to protect everyone from. He could talk to 'Cornelius' about self preservation later, and then he'd ask Sasha to ease up on teasing. Everything would be fine.

   "Why are we sitting in the dark?" Will leapt up with a flourish. As lamps clicked on around him, Will felt a surge of pride at how his Cabin snapped to attention. He held out his hand to Leona and she obediently handed him the knife she kept under her pillow. If it was some innocent woodland critter Will would find a nonviolent way to get it out, but there was a chance it was a really small monster. Better safe than sorry.

   On his stomach Will inched towards the bed, squinting at the darkness underneath. There was a flash of silver. Something launched at Will and grabbed his face. He stumbled back with a yell. The entire cabin screamed.

   Will was hit hard in the head and the thing from under bed flew off. Dazed he stared at Kayla who held her pillow like a war hammer. Having siblings was great, there was always someone ready to slap you in the face when you really needed it.

   "It went under Austin's bed!" Marcy yelled from Leona's bunk. She probably launched herself up there when Will was attacked. That little girl could climb like a monkey.

   As if it knew it's cover had been blown, the thing shot out from under Austin's bed in another flash of silver. It seemed to be some type of robot, an orb with four spiderlike legs. Defying gravity it scrambled up one of the bunk beds to Jake. With no hesitation whatsoever Jake launched himself at Leona's bunk. Sticking the landing, he grinned triumphantly before shrinking under Will's withering gaze.

   "Look out!" Sasha said pointing. The robot was racing after Jake, ready to make the same jump.

   Jake and Leona both rushed for the ladder, Leona was kind enough to let her little brother rush to safety first. Marcy bypassed the ladder entirely, instead deciding to vault over the guard rail and swing herself onto Will's bunk.

   The robot landed on an empty bunk, seemingly unperturbed. It scrambled down and went up the next bunk, chasing away the occupants. Dodging pillows, shoes, and various weapons, the robot raced around the cabin herding all the campers into a huddle in the middle of the room.

   The machine rushed into the middle of the huddle and everyone surged back. It's legs retracted into it's body and the entire cabin just started at the unmoving orb.

It exploded.

-

   When Will opened his eyes he thought he'd gone blind. Everything seemed white. After blinking his eyes a few times Will realized that was because everything _was_ white. Covered in carmel syrup and fluffy white feathers.

   "What the he-" Sasha was cut off by the robot screeching out a horrible rendition of the chicken dance. It was painfully out of tune and disturbingly loud. Hearing it made Austin shudder in disgust. Will felt like someone was driving a rusty nail directly into whatever part of his brain processed music. It was like having his own supersonic whistle turned against him.

   Everyone screamed and rushed out of the cabin in a panic.

\---

   After the incident. After Apollo cabin had plucked feathers off of themselves and off of each other. Off of their blankets and their pillows. Off of the floors and the walls and the ceiling. Off of absolutely everything! Who even had this many feathers?

   After the incident the Apollo cabin had a meeting. 

   "I thought the Hermes cabin had us on the no prank list after the measles epidemic of '09," Sasha shouted, marching up and down the cabin, waving her arms. It was generally agreed that this was all Hermes fault. They denied it, but they always denied everything. Besides, no one else could pull off a prank of this caliber.

   "Most of them were seven when that pact was made," Austin pointed out, squinted down at her. He had to play the voice of reason because Will was busy trying to help Marcy with her feather allergy. It wasn't anything too serious, but she was sneezing up a storm."and you were like, three," Sasha spun towards him eyes alight, she always needed someone to focus her anger on.

   "I don't remember pacts having expiration dates _know-it-all_!" She snapped. Seconds away from shouting insults in Korean. In all honesty, Sasha was always seconds away from shouting in Korean. It was her favorite out of the three languages she knew. She and Paolo liked to bond over how stupid English was.

   "Remember your breathing exercises," Leona said. She was trying to pull feathers from Jake's hair and he was tearfully begging her to leave them be, certain he'd end up bald.

   "I don't have anger issues!" Sasha snapped. Personally, Will thought breathing exercises were good for everyone, he was doing a few himself. There was nothing he could do to stop Marcy's sneezing.

   "Could've fooled me," Jake muttered, diving to avoid Leona and getting stuck to his bed sheets. Scowling he let Leona help pry them from his arm. No one was really sure what the sticky stuff holding the feathers was. It looked like syrup, it smelled like syrup, but when Marcy licked her arm to check the taste, her tongue had stuck for three minutes. So it probably wasn't syrup.

   "So Will," Kayla hummed, once Will had given up and just handed Marcy every tissue box in the cabin. There were like fifty of those things, since they saved them to hand out during flu season. With the way Marcy was sneezing Will suspected they'd be out within the hour. 

"What's with the..." She gestured vaguely at her own forehead then pointed at Will. 4:30am was too early for Kayla to hold a proper conversation so Will stared at her blankly, trying to decipher her meaning. She grabbed a mirror from under her bed and held it up.

   The words written on Will's head were hard to puzzle it out. They were definitely blue, and there were definitely two of them, but as Will tried to read them his dyslexic brain spat out jumbled things like.

**Gihtn iglht**

And

**Nthgi hgtli**

   "N-night, achoo! Light a-a-achoo!" Marcy read from over Will's shoulder. Apollo cabin was lucky enough to have someone who could read without having to stare at the words for twenty minutes first. 

  Night Light. Not Nightlight. Two separate words. A short, rhyming, sentence. A little cryptic, but Will knew exactly what it meant

   "Nico." Will sighed, because no one else would call him that. No one else _knew_. Sasha froze in the middle of her verbal assault, which had managed to snake its way around to Jake. She spun toward Will with a frightening swiftness.

   "Di 'Angelo did this!" She raised an eyebrow, (and her voice). "Because you cursed him?" Then the insults came, loudly, quickly, and in Korean. Will was itching to tell her to watch her language, but he wasn't sure if she was actually swearing.

   "It might be because I called him Dr. Suess," Will mumble, rubbing absentmindedly at his forehead. Cursing Nico had filled Will with this strange almost guilty feeling. He really missed hanging out and talking, but he also thought Nico deserve what he got. It never crossed Will's mind that Nico might try to get back at him.

   "Well he can't blame all of us for what you've done," Sasha snapped. "Who does he think he is?"

   "Sasha-"

   "No Will!" Something in the way she glued her hands to her hips and stared off into the distance made alarm bells go off in Will's head. The more dramatic Sasha got the more persuasive she seemed to be. Who knew what she'd get the cabin to do if Will didn't intervene.

  "Don't defend him, he had no right," And the way she stomped her foot really showed that she was preparing a speech.

  "Sasha he-"  Will had his own speech, one that would hopefully calm Sasha down and make her see reason.

   "We can't let him off just you have a crush on him," Every word drained out Will's head leaving him a stunned blushing mess.

   "Sasha!" He gasped, overly aware of his accent and the fact that it made him sound like a flustered Southern Belle.

   "We, as the children of Apollo, must get revenge for this heinous act of trickery!" Will's heart sank at the dangerous number of thoughtful looks Sasha got.

   "Nobody needs to get-"

   "Revenge!" Marcy shouted waving a dagger that Will really needed to talk to someone about because, holy Hades! Who gave an eight year old something that unsafe? The entire cabin took up the chant.

"Re- _venge_!"

"Re- _venge_!"

"Re- _venge_!"

\---

   Nico didn't know the entire Apollo Cabin had spent the rest of the day searching for him. He didn't know they scoured the entire camp looking like they'd all lost a fight with a giant chicken. Or that Will had a small conniption as he tried to make them stop before quietly resigning himself to the fact that no one in his cabin was going to listen to a thing he said. Not while they all had caught Sasha's bloodlust.

   Nico didn't know this because he was nowhere to be found. And neither were the Stoll brothers.

   They didnt reappear until breakfast the next day. Travis and Connor were with the rest of their siblings, talking and laughing like they usually did and Nico seemed to just appear at his table, unnoticed and eerily quiet like he usually did.

   This managed to briefly lull the camp into a façade of normalcy. Until the Apollo cabin arrived, still shedding feathers and reminding everyone how they'd woken up yesterday.

   The children of Cabin 7 entered the Dining Pavilion in a stony silence. The fiercely determined air that followed them all the way to their table made all conversation drop to a hushed whisper. Eyes darted from Nico to the Stoll's to the Apollo Cabin as each camper watched with baited breath.

   The tension in the air was electrifying

   Will locked eyes with Nico, forcing his face to stay relaxed. Pretending he actually had a choice in what was about to happen. Two eyebrows furred over dark, searching eyes as Nico tried to read Will's face. It was hard to act calm and calculating with such an intense gaze turned on you. Will ignored the shiver that ran up his spine and tried to smile.

   "Nico Di'Angelo," He announced, the hush that fell over the dinning pavilion, and the crowd of peering eyes, also did not help his nerves. "Apollo Cabin challenges Hades Cabin to a game of Capture the Flag!"

   Now all eyes turned to Nico, but Will was offered no relief as Nico's gaze doubled in intensity. He fixed Will with a grim stare.

"I accept,"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: I almost forgot to name Leona. I had the word Name as a placeholder until I got my friend to name her like two minutes ago.


	3. Will's Siblings Use The Camp's Basket Weavering Classes For Evil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! I'm alive!

It really wasn't surprising that Will had more than half the camp on his team. After all you'd have to be crazy to choose the dark brooding Ghost King over Will Solace, the physical embodiment of a smile. Ares probably would have been indifferent enough to be on either side, but Will had snatched them up before recruiting them had even crossed Nico's mind.

At least Nico didn't really have to ask anyone to join his team. People just decided they were on it, and who was he to say no? Anabeth and Percy had wished him good luck on being a leader. The Stolls had winked at Nico in a way that made him feel like he'd agreed to something terrible. Piper admitted that she'd planned to be on Nico's team, but had been outvoted by the rest of her cabin. So Aphrodite went to Will.

So, Athena, Poseidon, Hermes, and Hades. That made the game four Cabins against the world. Two when you took into account that the Poseidon and Hades cabins were basically empty. Those two Cabins were going to be lead by someone who had no idea what he was doing because he had absolutely no experience in the game they were playing. 

It wasn't that Nico hated Capture the Flag, he just didn't see the appeal. So whenever it was time to play he'd be conveniently absent or hanging out on the sidelines with the medics, with Will. Man he missed hanging out with Will.

As Nico paced back and forth in his Cabin he wondered how he'd managed to blow everything out of proportion in only four days. Five if you counted the night he made fun of Will and woke up unable to talk right. 

"There's nothing worse, than this stupid curse." Nico muttered to himself, and with a jolt he realized  that even if he came up with the best plan in the world he wouldn't be able to tell his team. There was no way Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, terrifying Ghost King , was going to stand in front of a crowd of people and give rhyming orders. He'd look like a loon.

So not only could Nico not come up with a plan for a game he had no chance of winning, if he did miraculously come up with something he couldn't tell anyone. And he couldn't just choose not to play because children of Apollo were stubborn. If Nico didn't show up to this game he'd be challenged every day until he caved in or fled the camp. Though he he'd seen what Will's sister Sasha could do when she was determined, she might just hunt him down. 

For a moment Nico considered calling Hazel and begging her to lead the blue team. Technically she counted as a child of Hades. That's when Nico realized he was way too panicked to think straight. So he did what anyone would have done when their battle plans weren't working out right.

He found Anabeth.

Anabeth was, of course, really smart, so when Nico rushed up to her and blurted out, 

"I don't want to talk, they'll giggle and they'll balk," She understood immediately. Patting Nico on the shoulder Anabeth smiled in a way that would have been slightly comforting if the maniacal grins of the Stoll brothers weren't still fresh in Nico's mind. Children of  Athena and Hermes were on equal footing when it came to plotting the downfall of their enemies. 

"I could come up with a plan for you, but only if you're sure you wouldn't mind," She sounded deceptively sweet. If Anabeth's voice was honey then her mind was a hive, filled with bees ready to sting. Nico suddenly felt very sorry for the red team.

Welp, they'd brought it on themselves.

\---

Annabeth came up with the plan.

Nico guarded the flag. 

And despite the fact that they were severely outnumbed, even though Demeter did surprisingly ended up on their side. (Nico suspected Hermes bribery) 

And the fact that they seemed to have no chance whatsoever.

They won.

Not only did they win, but Nico never even saw the red team. The couldn't get past Anabeth's defenses to the flag.

Hermes was celebrating like they had won the lottery and Nico would be lying if he said it didn't make him feel a bit giddy. Their silly string was a bit much though. As Nico made his way through a crowd of elated teens he spotted a mob of blond hair near the red team and headed for it.

"If you pick a team of bruisers, you'll end up with sore losers." Nico fought the urge to laugh as Will jumped and spun around. His face was completely flushed and from what Nico had heard Will had spent most of the game hanging upside down from a net made of vines that Anabeth had the Demeter cabin set up.

"I hope you're not just here to gloat," The thing about Will was that he didn't spend much time looking at his own face, so he often denied that he ever did anything remotely similar to pouting. Nico on the other had studied Will's face a lot more often than he'd be willing to admit and he knew Will pouted all the time. He was doing it right now. His eyes wide and his bottom lip pushed out ever so slightly. If Nico was a sulker Will was a pouter.

"If I said that I wasn't I'd be a sham," The curse wasn't as pushy when you went along with. it, but it still left an awkward bitter taste in Nico's mouth, "So how about it Solace what if I am?"

"Do you really want to tease the one person who can uncurse you?" Will may have been a pouter, but he lacked the ability to maintain his attitude. A grin was already sneaking it's way onto his face.

"It no longer matters to me whether or not the curse stays," Nico paused to enjoy the way Will's eyebrows shot into his hair. It was overdramatic and extremely satisfying to watch. "I found out it only lasts seven days."

"Oh someone told you." The pout was back, but only for a moment. Will quickly stared at Nico with a mischievous sort of smirk. 

"I could always curse you again," The look on Nico's face must have been absolutely dumbstruck because Will burst out laughing. 

Calling a child of Apollo's laugh musical seemed either painfully cliche or the like the type of lame pun Will loved. Nico felt a warmth building in his chest. Making Will laugh instilled a sense of pride in him.

"If you could see your face," Will chuckled. Feeling a bit childish Nico stuck out his tongue. His face deeply flushed, Will froze for a second before he burst out laughing again. 

"Wiiiiiiilll!" A pained wail snapped Will and Nico out of their silliness. It was one of Will's brothers, his name was something ridiculous... Reginald? Florence? No, it was something with a C. Cornelius! Cornelius was bawling and Will was at his side faster than Nico could have shadow-travelled there.

"What happened? What's broken?" Will asked breathlessly. As Will checked for injuries Cornelius sniffled and pointed at his head. Nico saw the flash of panic in Will's eyes as the medic went through his mental list of injuries that could be caused by head trauma.

"Can you rate your pain on a scale from one to- " Will's hands made contact with the gooey substance in Cornelius's hair. It was hard to spot seeing as they were almost the same shade of yellow. 

"Oh," Will said quietly. 

"It'll probably washout," He continued slowly. This seemed to set Cornelius off and he sobbed louder attracting the attention of members of the red team. 

"My hair is ruined," He cried gaining sympathetic looks from Aphrodite Cabin. The rest of the red team were focused on shooting annoyed glares at Nico. 

"How did you get egg in your hair?" Will asked unaware of his audience. An accusatory finger rose up and pointed itself directly at Nico's face. Cornelius glared at him so darkly that Nico felt like he was on trial for murder. Alas poor Cornelius's hair, the Aphrodite Cabin knew it well.

"You egged us?" Will stared at Nico incredulously. There was a moment were Nico was going to respond with a confused 'apparently ' but he was fortunately interupted before he could stick his foot in his mouth. 

Actually, fortunately might not have been the right word. 

"That's not all he did!" Exclaimed a visibly annoyed Nike camper. The rest of the red team rushed to air their grievances. 

"They hid in the trees and threw sap at us!" Cried an Aphrodite camper whose hair looked like a bird's nest.

"I spent the whole game in a pit trap!" Sniffed a muddy Iris camper.

"Can someone uncuff me?" Growled a son of Hephaestus. 

"We shouldn't be so suprised that the son of the God of the Underworld plays dirty," The daughter of Nike declared haughtily. 

The mob hurled insults instead of rocks or pitchforks, but Nico still felt like he was being made into a monster. Defending himself would mean telling everyone he had nothing to do with any of the planning. That the traps weren't his fault. But Nico wasn't going to just throw Annabeth under the bus like that. Instead he ran away. 

Well, he shadow-travelled away. As Nico became one with the shadows he saw Will lock eyes with him clearly displeased. A coldness settled over Nico, one that he strongly suspected wasn't just from darkness enveloping him. 

Crawling into bed fully clothed, Nico convinced himself that everything would blow over in the morning. 

\---

Apollo Cabin was petty.

When Nico tried to jump out of bed the next morning he was met with a serious problem. He couldnt move. Well he could, but it was extremely difficult considering the layers of gauze that covered him from head to toe. 

At some point, while Nico was in a post-shadowtravelling sleep coma, the children of Apollo had broken into Nico's cabin. Then, with their penchant for poetic irony, they'd gone and mummified the zombie king.

For a moment Nico wondered if Will was that upset with him, but he strongly doubted Will's involvement in the prank. If pushed too hard the son of Apollo would push back (the couplets curse proved that) but Will would never sacrifice medical supplies for anything. That meant Will's sibling had snuck this past their Counselor who would definitely have a hissyfit.

The guaze wasn't tight ebough to restrict his breathing and their were distinctly less layer around Nico's kneess and elbow so he wouldn't pull a muscle trying to bend his arm. Apparently it'd been decided that they'd go all out with the face to make up for the safety precautions. Nico was effectively gagged and he could only see out of one eye.

Despite the twenty minutes Nico spent clawing at his own chest and hopping around his cabin, there seemed to be no way to loosen the bindings.

Belatedly Nico remembered his sword. 

He waddled over to its permanent post next to his bed and carefully snagged it under one the layers of gauze. It was cut without too much fuss and Nico started to unwrap his arm. Instead of just wrapping  Nico up layer by layer the Apollo Cabin had apperantly decided to weave the strips of gauze in and out of eachother making the whole ordeal much more difficult than it needed to be.

After spending a regrettable amount of time  demumifying himself Nico debated going to breakfast. He wasn't in the mood to see anyone from Apollo and he knew they would all be there, gauging his reaction. 

In the end it was thinking about Will that made Nico leave his cabin. Imagining him red in the face as he realized that Nico not only shadow-travelled for no real reason, but he also skip a meal while his energy was depleted. Will would have a coniption. Nico didn't need the time-consuming lectute, 

and, 

well, 

he didn't want to worry Will.

Red in the face Nico groaned into his hands. Will, Will, Will! Being friends with that boy was going to kill him someday. Making him socialize and eat healthy.

It didn't help that there was a voice constantly whispering in the back of his head that they could be more than just friends. The thought flittered around Nico's mind like a terrible mosquito driving him crazy and sucking out his common sense. It be silly to jeopardize their friendship over a selfish desire for a relationship. 

Right?

Nico pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind like he usually did and marched to breakfast his head held high. Many children of Apollo were missing from their table, including Will. Nico took pleasure in imagining his attackers getting scolded for their actions by a very annoyed Will. A serious Will was not a Will you wanted to go up against. 

\---

Nico entered the infirmary with trepidation. There was an audible gasp and Nico turned his head just in time to see the back of Cornelius's head as the boy fled to a different room. His hair was brown. Then Will was descending on Nico like a raptor on defenseless bunny.

"Nico Di'Angelo!" He said his arms crossed tight as he scowled at Nico. Uh oh, serious Will. "I thought we talked about the dangers of shadow-travelling all willy nilly like that," Nico nodded gravely in an attempt to end the conversation. 

"And I couldn't even check on you because I had to help Cornelius with his whole situation," Will's face softened, "You were okay right?" With a sigh Nico made a show of clearing his throat. 

"I passed out and slept like a log," Nico admitted, shrugging, "but I didn't disolve into a wispy fog." As expected Will smiled as he listened to Nico rhyming. 

"That's good," Will hummed. He brushed his fingering down Nico's arm as if to check its solidity. The voice in the back of Nico's head buzzed loudly. 

A barrage of spitballs smacked into the side of Nico's face.  There was a moment were Nico was frozen in shock before he whipped toward the source of his assault.  Patients stared at him in shock eyes darting from the frightful sight of a glowering Ghost King to suspiciously innocent looking Apollo Cabin nurses. 

Will made an annoyed noise as he marched toward his siblings, clearly planning to give them a stern talking to. While his back was turned Nico left the infirmary, scraping paper off his cheek and cursing under his breath. 

Why did children of Apollo have to be so frustrating?

\---

The Apollo attack didn't let up over the course of the day. By lunch time Nico had given up on trying to do anything within the confines of the camp and was instead taking a stroll through the woods.

He wasn't hiding, of course, he was just... avoiding the Apollo Cabin. 

There was a big difference. Nico was certain that as long as he stayed as far away as he could, without leaving, Will's siblings would get tired of trying to track him down. Out of sight out of sight out of mind right?

Although...

Nico sat on a rock and had an intense staring contest with the ground. 

Technically he could leave whenever he wanted to. Just a quick dip in the shadows and Nico could be miles away. This whole pranking thing would blow over and the stupid curse would wear off. It was all so simple, but Nico knew he couldn't do it.

Because of Will. 

Because that meddlesome medic  would have an aneurysm if heard that Nico had just run off without telling anyone. Then he'd do mental back flips to find a way that the entire thing was his fault. 

A twig snapped and Nico shot up grabbing his sword. This close to camp it was probably a squirrel, but it could always be a particularly brave monster. Or worse. It could be an Apollo camper.

Turns out it was none of the above. 

Nico stared in quiet confusion as the two Stoll brothers stepped into view, soaking wet, and scowling deeply.

"What's wrong with this picture?" The Stoll on the left asked. The Stoll brothers weren't twins, but they might as well have been considering how impossible it was to tell them apart. 

Nico pretended to ponder the question for a moment. 

"You're not grinning like Cheshire cats?" he offered, "I never thought I'd live to see that!" Talking in ryhmes was uncomfortable, but talking to the Stolls was always uncomfortable, so Nico almost didn't notice.

"They dumped a bucket of water on us!" The Stoll snapped. It might have been Connor, he seemed to be the more excitable one. Then again Travis was supposed to be the one with the short temper.

"They didn't even place it on a door or anything," Exploded the Stoll on the right, "just ran right up and splashed us!"

"No respect for proper prank etiquette," Tsked the first Stoll. This was confusing. While normal Stolls were extremely hard to tell apart angry Stolls seemed nearly indistinguishable. 

"You're upset," Nico said slowly, "about prank etiquette?"

"And you're not?" The second Stoll's smile was unnerving. It had to be Travis. That kid was creepy. (And that was saying something coming from a kid who spent an inordinate amount of time with dead people), "We're not the only ones hiding out in the woods." The temperature dropped at least three degrees as shadows congregated on their spot in the forest. Nico glared down an unimpressed Travis (?). 

"I came to the woods for peace and quiet," Nico said coldly, "I have no time for an Apollo riot." Travis rolled his eyes dismissively.

"Look," he said, "If they were just going after me and Connor it'd be a totally different issue." Ha! Nico did get the names right... eventually. 

"But they've been going after our entire cabin and as co-counselors we can't let that stand." Connor said, a fiercely determined spark in his eye. "The only way to stop them is to outprank them!"

"We're asking if you want in on it." Travis tucked a wet lock of hair behind his ear, eyes staring into the distance as if could already see his revenge plot unfolding. There was a small grin on his face. Creepy kid.

"You should leave right now if you're trying to be funny, or if you think I have any money," It was hard to get cash when you spent all your time either at a magic summer camp or in the underworld. Not that it really mattered since Nico didn't buy many things.

"Free of charge," agreed the Stoll brother that Nico could now correctly identify as Connor.

A handshake sealed the deal.


	4. It's all fun and games until someone uses the W word

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy holidays

"I'm sorry my Cabin's been acting so terribly," Sighed Will as he plopped down next to Nico. They were meeting at the pier because Will knew for a fact that the plague of vengeful children that were searching for Nico were currently doing so on the other side of camp. They were doing rounds. And shifts! Marcy had made the schedule so it wasn't well thought out, but the fact that they had made one at all gave Will a headache.

"They'll apologize once they calm down." Whether he was trying to convince Nico or himself was one of life's great mysteries. Of course they'd have to apologize eventually. Even if they didn't want to. Part of being a counselor was forcing the kids in your cabin to act like decent human beings until they actually became some.

Nico nervously twisted his skull ring.

"Don't worry about it." He said stiffly. Suspicious, Will studied Nico's face. The son of Hades was chewing his bottom lip a decidedly guilty way, but before Will could call him out on it, Nico's entire face lit up. It made Will's heart do a flip and he completely lost his train of thought.

"I'm not rhyming anymore!" Nico said with genuine excitement. To be honest Will was happy too. Maybe the return of Nico's voice would also bring about a return to normalcy.

"Good for you," Will laughed as he threw an arm over Nico's shoulder, right before remembering that was something Nico preferred he didn't do. Instead of shrugging off the arm with a scowl, Nico looked twice as guilty as before.

"What's wrong?" Will asked because if he had asked 'are you okay' he definitely would have gotten a lie. He knew Nico well enough to know that

"Your cabin was being stupid, so I decided to retaliate by being stupider," Nico admitted, which was... vague. Dangerously vague. It gave Will a bad feeling and when your dad was the god of prophecies it didn't do well to ignore those.

"You didn't put another bomb in our cabin did you?" There was absolutely no waver in Will's voice because he definately hadn't developt a strong aversion to feathers as a result of The Incident.

"I did not put a bomb in your Cabin." Nico refused to elaborate, still speaking in clipped sentences as if the curse had simply forgotten to affect him and if he talked too long it would rear its ugly head again. There was a rumble that felt like a mini earthquake and when Will glanced over at Nico slightly panicked, Nico simply glanced behind them as if this sort of thing happened all the time. Which to be fair it did, but not when Nico wasn't dragging dead bodies out of the ground.

"I'm supposed to say 'An eye for an eye, a cabin for a cabin'" The rumbling turned Nico's voice into this strange vibrating thing. Will raised a questioning eyebrow, but all he got in return was an apologetic shrug. 

Then they crested the hill.

"Here comes the sun!" Roared the cavalry. The entire Hermes Cabin sat astride horses waving their swords as they herd the Apollo Cabin like their father's famous red cattle. They were headed straight for the lake.

Will turned to stare at Nico vaguely confused and fighting the urge to point out that dumb song-based puns were usually his department, only to find himself being shoved in the lake. The shock of the cold water threw him off for a second before he managed to break the surface with a variety of flailing. There was a chorus of disgruntled complaining as each of his siblings were forced to jump in the lake. It was met with roaring cheer from the Hermes Cabin.

Will looked up at Nico as he stood akwardly on the edge of the peer. They made eye contact for second.

Will stuck out his tongue trying his best not to give himself cholera from the lake water. Nico shrugged again, equally apologetic and walked back to his accomplices clearly fighting back a smile. It was all very poetic, the lone figure make his slow march into the distance. A embodiment of calm surronded by the complete chaos that was a two groups of children screaming at eachother after a Hermes prank. Will silntly reflected that time spent with Jake may have been making him more melodramatic, but as a child of Apollo drama was already deepily embedded in his soul so he wasn't too concerned. 

Judging by the anger in his cabinmates eyes as they treaded water, a return to normalcy was nowhere in sight.

-

Sasha screamed into a pillow for a full minute before she could gather herself enough to talk.

"Why?" She yelled at no one in particular. The towel that hit her in the face probably didn't help her mood, but Jake was in an equally bad one. In an attempt to drag Jake out of the pit of dispair that he'd dived into after Capture the flag, Will had taken to assigning him little jobs as a distraction. It wasn't working. 

"Well, Will was fraternizing with enemy again, maybe he knows." Austin was joking, but the glare leveled at Will by a fuming Sasha was dead serious. A balled up towel hit him dead center in the forehead. He could have sworn he heard a muttered 'Traitor'

"I think they were getting back us for pranking the entire Hermes cabin or something." Will snatched the towels from Jake and began to pass them out himself. 

"He started it!" Marcy cried. She had been stuffed into two undersized floaties by te Hermes cabin before eing chased into the lake. They'd gotten Jake too, but he'd stabbed them both with a pen as soon as they got back to the cabin. Prying of the deflated rings Jake had hissed something under his breath about being able to swim.

He couldn't, not well enogh to swim witout supervision at least, yet he still insisted that he was too old to be watched. It was something Will had repeatedly complained about to Nico, which was probably how the Hermes Cabin found out.

"Our pranks were small annoying things, " Sasha groused, aggressively drying her hair. "We didn't try to give anyone hypothermia"

"We're not gonna catch hypothermia, " Will's mind was mostly focussed on calming everyone down, so it wasn't until he had passed towels to Austin and Leona that his brain suddenly caught up with the convo  "Wait your not feeling any symptoms are you?" Sasha groaned as Will came to check her heart rate.

"Maybe we should shave their heads!" Jake grumbled into his towel as he dried his face. He wasn't taking his brown hair very well. The eggs hadn't done any damage to his hair despite his insistence that they had. He'd washed out the last of the dye claiming that Cornelius was too vibrant a name for such a dull hairstyle and asked them all not to talk to him until he'd fixed it.

"For the third time no!" Will groaneded. Jake retreated to his bed with a face that meant he was going to write a poem about how much of malevolent tyrant Will really was. The he'd 'accidently' leave it somewhere Will could find it. When confronted he'd say Will simply didn't undestand the anguish of his soul.

"Well we have to do something. " Sasha announced her voice starting to take on the persuasve bossy tone again. Sometimes it felt like he was dealing with a Charm-Speaking daughter of Aphrodite instead of a particularly plucky half-sister.

"No we really don't, " Will sighed, "What we need to do is let the situation descalate and then-"

"We should declare war," Kayla said offhandedly as she fiddled with her bow. The sudden interjection from some older than twelve had Will realing as he scramble to find an argument that didn't revolve arround speeches about being mature for their age.

"Who side are you on?" He groaned. If one conversation in his  life could just do him the favor of going the way he'd scripted it in head, he'd have to send the fates a boquete of flowers. Or a letter asking what took them so long.

"The people who didn't throw me in a lake." Kayla scoffed. It was a fair point ans Will wasn't prepared to argue against fair points because Sasha never made them.

"War!" Marcy cried wrapping her toweel around herself like the dragging cape of a ruling warmonger. 

"War!" Jake and Sasha echoed eyes shining.

Will looked around for help, but Austin was laughing and Leona was trying to do something with her wet hair.

"We shall see them driven before us and hear the lamentations of their women!" Kayla added, cackling. Will sent her a look that she made a point of ignoring. No one was on Will's side. This was mutiny!

"Come ooon Will!" Marcy begged, and he was forced to abandon what ever rational argument his mind was building against Kayla to combat Marcy's adorableness turned to full power. "It doesn't even have to be a real war with blood and stuff." It was clear that this was supposed to be comforting, but the implication that Marcy was already mentally prepared to actually fight Nico was incredibly nerve wracking.

"Yeah!" Sasha piped up clearly picking up on how Will had lost control of the discussion.  "It'd just be a... a"

"A prank war!" Jake shouted bouncing in his seat.

"Yeah! Yeah! What Jake said!" Some part of Will was certain that this was the first time Sasha had ever said those words and that part was proud. The rest of him was freaking out because it was realizing how vastly outnumbered he was.

"Pleeeease Will?" Puppy dog eyes hitting him from one direction as Sasha and Jake flanked him from both sides with the prospect of actual sibling bonding? There wasn't much Will could do. It was okay to act out a little right? As long as no one got hurt?

Will's long suffering sigh was taken as the surrender it was and a cheer broke out.

When they'd finally gotten the okay from Will. Or to be more precise when they'd finally stopped getting a decisive no, the terrible trio began planning. There were suspicous whispering at lunch that definately held the word spike trap. Will reminded them of their promise to be non-lethal and made them pinkie-swear not to draw blood. Disturbed cackling about itching powder rose up during arts and crafts only to quickly die down when they realized Hermes were the only suppliers. And during archery Will overheard what seemed to be a plan to get Nico and the entire Hermes cabin stuck on a spaceship headed to Mars.

After awhile Will started to relax. As their plans grew wilder and wilder it seemed that planning was all they'd ever do. But Marcy had withdrawn from the conversation around the same time Jake had gotten hypothetical, bringing up flaming swords and super heroes with the sort of fanatical reverence he usually only devoted to his favorite tv shows.

It didn't set off the alarm bells it should have. Every conselor worth his salt knows they're in for trouble when a talkative kid goes quiet. But Will was busy reassuring himself that there was no way Sasha could realistically make the entire camp forget that the Hermes cabin and Nico had ever existed.

After a significant amount of time spent staring into the distance Marcy turned towards her siblings grinning.

"Have you ever scene the Parent Trap?"


End file.
